Ayame crossed the courtyard to Quinlan's side with the winter dusk settling gold and violet over the compound, and behind her the [Warp Gate] widened, its shimmer stretching until the doorway stood wide enough for multiple people to pass through at once.
Then the family came home.
"Master!"
Blossom cleared the gate at a dead sprint, ears pinned flat with speed, and crossed thirty meters of courtyard in the time it took Quinlan to open his arms.
She hit his chest hard enough to spin him half a step, burrowed in, and looked up with her tail whipping the air behind her.
"Blossom organized the whole cleanup and counted all the supply crates and didn't bite a single prisoner even when one of them called Master ugly names!"
"Good girl."
The tail became a blur just as Quinlan mused, "You made quite the scene back there."
The blur stalled, and her ears folded back as she pressed her face harder into his chest.
